DPWH creates new unit vs corruption

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Acting Secretary Florante Soriquez of the Department of Public Works and Highways ordered the creation of an "integrity board" yesterday in a bid to curb graft and corruption in the DPWH.

Soriquez said the board will handle the complaints of contractors against the DPWH and look into the integrity of department personnel and contractors.

The board members will include representatives from the DPWH, the Philippine Contractors Association, and the National Confederation of Constructors’ Associations of the Philippines (NACCAP).

The creation of the board was initially proposed by NACCAP national president Willy Castor to establish a check-and-balance system amid reports of worsening graft and corruption in the DPWH.

Retired DPWH director Severino Enriquez said the incidence of graft and corruption in the DPWH increased during the martial law years under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Enriquez, who acted as chief of the DPWH’s Mt. Pinatubo Rehabilitation Project Management Office before he retired, claimed the problem worsened during the administration of Corazon Aquino due to "political meddling."

He blamed congressmen in particular, saying they often colluded with government district engineers in the handling of public works contracts.

There have been persistent rumors that congressmen get a "cut" of as much as 20 percent of the cost of public works projects, according to Enriquez.

Soriquez declined to comment on such reports, but stressed that the creation of the integrity board would help reduce the incidence of graft and corruption in his department, albeit conducting lifestyle checks on DPWH personnel would not be one of its functions.

He added that he is considering DPWH Undersecretary Raul de Asis to head the board.

Soriquez assured the public that the DPWH complaints and action center would fasttrack investigations of pending complaints on anomalies in his department, except cases that have been filed with the Office of the Ombudsman.

He said that when he assumed the post of acting DPWH secretary some three months ago, transparency was among his priorities. He ordered the publication of the "net worths of DPWH officials starting from me down to regional directors, as well as project managers and district engineers."

Soriquez accused his critics of pursuing a "destabilization drive to smear and destroy my image in the DPWH," purportedly so he would be removed as DPWH chief.

Soriquez admitted that he faces criminal charges filed with the Sandiganbayan for his alleged role in the faulty construction of a portion of the P2.7 billion anti-lahar megadike at the Pasig-Potrero River in Pampanga. A huge portion of the megadike collapsed in August 1996 after heavy lahar flow.

He said his lawyers have filed a petition to exclude his name from the respondents in the case, claiming that government prosecutors do not have any evidence nor any witness pointing to his involvement in the megadike’s faulty construction.

Soriquez asked that the public judge him only after the Sandiganbayan rules on the case. He told his critics that he has no plans of having his appointment as DPWH chief made permanent, since his term would be co-terminus with that of President Arroyo, who is set to step down in 2004.

Last July 25, government prosecutors asked the Sandiganbayan to suspend Soriquez and four other DPWH officials who have been indicted for alleged graft in the megadike scam.

Government prosecutors told the anti-graft court’s fifth division that the suspension of Soriquez and DPWH officials Rey David, Ulysis Manago, Juan Gonzales and Gil Rivera is "mandatory" under the law.

Soriquez was the former director of the Mt. Pinatubo Rehabilitation Project before he was appointed DPWH assistant secretary in March 2001. A career employee at the DPWH since 1962, he has expressed willingness to resign when the President finds a suitable replacement.

Soriquez, according to Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye, worked his way to the top from laborer to undersecretary.